Harry Potter and The Key
by PepperjackCandy
Summary: COMPLETED -- What would happen if BTVS and the Harry Potter books were in the same world, and if Cedric had known that the Key had been given human form at the time of the Second Task?
1. 1

Harry Potter and The Key  
  
Disclaimer: Am I Twentieth Century Fox? J.K. Rowling? Mutant Enemy? (Grr. Argh.)? Warner Brothers? Kuzui Enterprises? Scholastic? Joss Whedon?  
  
I didn't think so. Therefore I own nothing but the keyboard I typed this on.  
  
A/N I: The story and the author's note immediately following contain spoilers for Goblet of Fire and Season 5 of Buffy. If you don't want to be spoiled for either, turn back now . . . .  
  
I know the years of Season 5 of Buffy and Goblet of Fire don't really match, but I'm pretending that they do. Using airdates as if they were the real dates, "Blood Ties," when Dawn found out she was the Key was February 6, the Second Task was February 24, "The Body," which was about Joyce's death was February 27. I know, Buffy found Joyce's body on February 20, but it works better to have her die on February 27.   
  
===========  
  
Harry watched as Cedric walked up to the auburn-haired young woman who was, evidently, the one person he'd miss most. "Do I know you from somewhere?" He asked.  
  
"Dawn Summers? Sunnydale, California?" She asked hopefully. "Ring any bells?"  
  
He shook his head slowly. "No, that's not it . . ."   
  
"This is what I was afraid of. Dum - something. Dumbwaiter?"  
  
"Dumbledore?"   
  
"Yeah. Him. He couldn't figure it out, either." She shrugged.  
  
Cedric suddenly realized what one person would be more important than his friends, or family, or Cho. He looked deeply into her green eyes. "You can't be." He paused then added, "But it's the only thing that makes sense."  
  
Dawn watched him as he stood silently for a while, wondering what he was thinking. Cedric was lost in his memories of being visited by his uncle Vaclav, who had told him about the importance of the Key to the fate of, not just humanity, but their entire dimension.   
  
The Order of Dagon had needed to use an untrained wizard as a power source for the ritual that would protect the Key from Glorificus, and during the testing, his uncle had slipped and told him how they were going to hide the key - by incarnating it as a human being and reworking the memories of everyone around her, including the key herself, so that she would be indistinguishable from other human beings.  
  
Obviously, having this kind of knowledge, it was no wonder that Dawn, if she was in fact the Key, had been chosen as the one person that he'd miss most. Friends, family, girlfriend, all paled in comparison. Without Dawn, there'd be no friends, no family, no girlfriend to care about.  
  
He was brought back to reality by the voice of Harry Potter, asking, "Can't be what?"   
  
_Damn Potter! First he tries to take my place as Hogwarts champion. . . _ "Nothing. Nothing at all." Cedric insisted as he directed Dawn away from the rest of the group.   
  
Harry watched as the Hufflepuff led the Californian teenager away from the group, but was kept from following when the Delacour sisters descended on him.  
  
"Dawn? Does the name _Order of Dagon_ mean anything to you?" Cedric asked her urgently.  
  
Dawn debated whether to tell the truth before answering, in a tentative tone. "No."  
  
"How about _Knights of Byzantium_?"  
  
She shook her head. "Nope."  
  
Cedric sighed. "I'm going to have to send an owl," he said half to himself.  
  
"An owl?"  
  
He nodded. "You don't know much about witches and wizards, do you?"  
  
"I know two witches."   
  
"But they don't communicate by owl?"  
  
"Not that I know of."  
  
"How odd. We'd better get going."  
  
They hurried to the owlery, where Cedric took a piece of paper, wrote _Has your key gone missing? If so, I think I've found it._ on a piece of parchment and tied it to the leg of one of the school's owls.  
  
"A key?" Dawn asked, panic rising in her eyes.   
  
"That doesn't ring any bells either?"   
  
She broke eye contact with him, looking at the owl-droppings-strewn floor then back up at him. "'Fraid not."  
  
"I sent that note to my uncle. He and his brothers are involved in something vitally important, and it involves . . . a key. The only reason I knew about it is that they needed a young untrained wizard for the ritual, and tested me to see if I was untrained enough. Turns out I wasn't." He said in a disappointed tone.  
  
"Well, there's nothing for it now but to wait for an answer. We'd better stay somewhere safe, like the Hufflepuff common room." He said as they left the owlery and ran directly into Harry.  
  
"What're you doing here?" Cedric asked suspiciously, placing himself between the Gryffindor and Dawn.  
  
"Just wondering where the two of you ran off to." He said, craning his neck around to see Dawn more clearly. Behind his back, Dawn gave Harry a dazzling smile, and Harry couldn't help but smile back.  
  
"Well, here we are. So you can just . . . run along now." Cedric grabbed Dawn's shoulder and steered her down the hallway towards the Hufflepuff Tower. Dawn looked back at Harry, never breaking eye contact until they were around the next corner.   
  
Harry walked back outside. "I've got to see her again." He said to himself.  
  
"See who again?" Ron asked brightly.  
  
"Did you see that girl?"  
  
"You mean the little one? With the brown hair?"  
  
Somehow, Ron's description didn't seem to even come close to capturing Dawn's beauty, but he nodded, a distant expression in his eyes. "Yeah. Her. Dawn." He lapsed into silence again.  
  
"Hello? Harry?" Ron asked, waving a hand in front of Harry's face. "You there?"  
  
"Yeah. I'm here. I'm just trying to figure out how to get her away from Diggory so I can talk to her."  
  
"Talk? Are you sure that's all you want to do?" Ron made smooching noises.  
  
Knowing that he'd be lying to say that the thought of kissing Dawn held no appeal for him, Harry settled for throwing his best friend a venomous look. "Are you going to help me or not?"  
  
Ron grinned at his friend and then sank into silent thought for a moment. "Neville!"  
  
"What about him?"  
  
"He's friends with Justin Finch-Fletchley, right?"  
  
"Yeah?   
"So I bet he could get Finch-Fletchley to get Diggory to come out to talk to me."  
  
"Why you? Wouldn't I be the one he should talk to?"  
  
Ron rolled his eyes and said in a patient tone. "He'd be talking to *me* because *you* will be wearing the invisibility cloak, and then *you* will sneak into the Hufflepuff Tower while his back's turned."  
  
A slow smile spread over Harry's face. "Great plan!"   
  
Ron preened. "I thought so."  
  
Harry and Ron went to Neville, who blithely went along with their request to contact Cedric, and soon they were standing in front of a portrait waiting for the Hogwarts Triwizard champion.   
  
With a click, the portrait swung open and Cedric stepped into the hallway, followed closely by Dawn.   
  
As Ron engaged Cedric in conversation about how he figured out the clue for the Second Task, Harry walked silently to Dawn's side. "Don't say anything," he whispered to her. "You want to get away from him for a while?"  
  
Dawn nodded silently.  
  
"Good." He whispered. "Follow me." He grasped Dawn's hand gently and tugged lightly. He threw off the invisibility cloak as they broke into a run.   
  
"Potter!" Cedric yelled, turning to follow them. "Bring her back! You don't know . . ."  
  
"_Aceite_!" Harry yelled, pointing his wand at the floor of the hallway between them and Cedric. Almost immediately, a slick liquid formed on the floor and Cedric slipped on it.   
  
As he and Dawn made it to the stairs heading downstairs, he heard Cedric yelling at Ron. "You let them get away! You idiot!"  
  
Harry didn't hear any more than that, for soon he and Dawn were running down the main corridor, past the Great Hall, and out into the afternoon sunshine.   
  
"Thank you!" Dawn said, trying to laugh, but having a hard time catching her breath from their escape. "I've been just desperate to get away from him! I couldn't believe that I'm actually at a school for witches and he didn't want to let me look around, just wanted to keep me all cooped up!"  
  
"You want a tour?" Harry asked.  
  
Her eyes lit up. "Really?"  
  
"Yeah. Really." He smiled back.  
  
They started out with a circuit around the gardens, Dawn marveling at the plants she'd never heard of. On their way around, they passed Hagrid.  
  
"Hi, Hagrid!" Harry smiled.  
  
Dawn gasped at the sight of the half-giant, reaching out and grasping Harry's hand for reassurance.  
  
"Dawn Summers, this is Rubeus Hagrid, Professor of Care of Magical Creatures." Harry introduced them soberly.   
  
"Pleased to meet you," Hagrid smiled at Dawn.  
  
"Me, too." Dawn said, Hagrid's amiable smile making her feel more comfortable.  
  
"Well, we're on a tour of the grounds." Harry said, eager to have Dawn to himself again. "See you around, Hagrid."  
  
"Enjoy your tour, Miss Summers." Hagrid called out as Harry and Dawn left, still walking hand-in-hand.  
  
They skirted the Forbidden Forest, and Harry regaled her with tales of his ventures into the Forest. She responded by being properly amazed at his bravery, clutching his hand more tightly.  
  
As they walked from there to the Quidditch pitch, he asked her about her life in California. She told him that she was daughter of Hank and Joyce Summers and sister of Buffy Summers, and a student at the Muggle high school in Sunnydale. She mentioned that she had two friends who were witches, but carefully omitted the detail that her sister was the Slayer.   
  
They then passed the Quidditch pitch. He explained the rules of Quidditch, downplaying the importance of his role as Seeker, though something about her wide-eyed amazement made him feel like the sports hero he truly was.  
  
They returned to the castle, then, since it was time for supper. Harry almost wished he hadn't abandoned his invisibility cloak in the hallway outside the entrance to the Hufflepuff Tower, since he could have concealed Dawn in it, and she could have eaten supper with him at the Gryffindor table.  
  
Dawn loved the way she felt when she was with Harry, just like any other fourteen year old girl, not some _thing_ to be used or destroyed -- just another kid with a limitless, human, future ahead of her.   
  
As they stopped outside the Great Hall, she procrastinated in order to extend the feeling of normality. "I had a really nice time, Harry." Dawn's smile warmed him to his toes.  
  
"So did I. Say, can we keep in touch? I can send you an owl once in a while. I could even get you your own, so you can write to me when you feel like it."  
  
"My own owl?" She said hopefully, but her expression soon fell. "I'm not sure what my mom would say about that."  
  
"Well, ask her and if she says it's all right, I'll send your owl with my second letter to you. All right?"  
  
"Yeah. I'd like that."  
  
They stared at each other moonily for a moment, then Dawn stood up on her tiptoes, and pressed her lips to Harry's in a chaste kiss, which they held for several seconds.   
  
They separated as Dawn saw the irate Cedric Diggory approaching her. "Well, I guess I've got to go."   
  
"Yeah. I'll write soon. OK?"  
  
"That'd be nice." She smiled at him again as Cedric dragged her off to the Hufflepuff table, reprimanding her for escaping.  
  
Ignoring the catcalls of his fellow students, who had seen Dawn kiss him, Harry walked to the Gryffindor table, where Ron nattered on for several minutes about Cedric telling him about some key that his uncle had lost or something. Harry wasn't listening. All he could think of was that he hoped that Joyce Summers would let her daughter get an owl of her own. Otherwise, Hedwig would come to hate him in the next few years.


	2. 2

Harry Potter and The Key, Chapter 2  
By: PepperjackCandy  
  
Disclaimer: Harry Potter, Hedwig and the Dursleys belong to J.K. Rowling, Warner Brothers, Scholastic, Bloomsbury Publishing, etc. Dawn, Buffy, Joyce, Giles, Willow, Tara and Anya belong to Joss Whedon, Twentieth Century Fox, Mutant Enemy? (Grr. Argh.), Kuzui Enterprises, etc. I guess I own Joy, though. I wish I did, at least. 8-)  
  
Once again, SPOILER WARNING for those who haven't seen Season 5 of Buffy or read Book 4 of Harry Potter.  
  
A/N: "-"s between the words indicate lines of the letter that were crossed out.  
  
Also, thanks to mid-season hiatuses (hiati?), some of these letters don't *quite* have the right tone for their dates. Just pretend that "Forever" ran on March 6, and that things settled down until "Tough Love" on May 1. "Intervention" was a slightly lighter ep, so we'll just have Dawn take that one in stride.  
  
~~~~~~~~  
  
25 February, 2001  
  
Dear Dawn,  
  
I hope you got back to California all right.   
  
Feel free to take a couple of days to respond. In fact, please do. Hedwig needs the rest after her trip. This is Hedwig, by the way. She likes it if you scratch behind her wings. You don't need to feed her. Just let her out at night and she'll get her own food. Do you have a mouse problem where you live? If so, Hedwig'll take care of it.  
  
And when you want to respond, tie your letter to her leg (she seems to prefer the right leg - she'll hold it out for you) and then just say "Take this to Harry Potter" to her. Make sure you have the window open first. It'll be difficult for her to get out otherwise.  
  
There's nothing really important to say. You only left yesterday, and my life at Hogwarts is exciting, but not that exciting. Mostly I just wanted to say hi and ask if your mom has said whether you can have your own owl yet.  
  
Harry  
  
==========  
  
March 8, 2001  
  
Dear Harry,  
  
I'm sorry for keeping Hedwig so long. But things have been difficult lately.   
  
-Buffy-came-home-from-school-  
  
-Remember-when-I-told-you-that-my-mom-had-surgery-  
  
My mom died on Tuesday. It was an -anu- -aneuris- aneurysm. A side effect from her brain surgery, they say.   
  
I sort of lost it for a while. Did some stupid things. Remember this -- resurrection spells are a bad thing.  
  
Well, if the offer's still good, Buffy says I can have an owl. Mom said, so, too, but I wanted to check with Buffy, too. They're both worried about how we're going to pay you back for it, though.  
  
When I got back from Hogwarts, Buffy was all worried about me. She went to her friend, Giles, to ask about it. He's from England and knows all sorts of stuff about magic, and she thought he'd know something about Hogwarts.   
  
He said that he did know about Hogwarts, and asked me all sorts of strange questions, like whether I was really sure that it was Harry Potter who'd given me the tour. He repeated your name several times, like he thought I was making it up or something. I didn't know what to say, so I told him about meeting Hagrid, and about the Quidditch thing, and how you were the fourth contestant in that competition, and he finally laid off me, but it was weird.  
  
Well, that's about it really.  
  
Write back to me soon?  
  
Love,  
Dawn  
  
==========  
  
9 March, 2001   
  
Dear Mr. Potter:  
  
It has recently come to my attention that you have been in communication with Dawn Summers. I ask that you please desist such communication, as Miss Summers has been through a difficult time recently and needs no more heartache or danger such as you would bring her through your ongoing conflict with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.  
  
Sincerely yours,  
Rupert Giles  
  
==========  
  
16 March, 2001 (sent with Dawn's owl)  
  
Dear Dawn,   
  
Where to begin?  
  
I'm sorry to hear about your mum. If you need anyone to talk to about it, I'm here for you.  
  
Here's your owl. She's an eagle owl. I had trouble finding something that can be found in California, but the saleslady assures me that if she keeps moving when she's outside, most people seeing her fly will think she's just a really big great horned owl.  
  
As for repaying me, don't worry about it. My folks left me a lot of money, and I don't have that much to spend it on. Plus, you have American muggle money and converting that to British wizarding money would be a pain.  
  
Please write back soon, I'm desperate to hear from someone who doesn't read the _Daily Prophet_!  
  
Harry  
  
==========  
  
17 March, 2001 (sent with the owl that Giles used)  
  
Dear Mr. Giles,  
  
I'm sorry that you think my problems with Voldemort might cause difficulty for Dawn, but it's really not my place to make decisions for Dawn. I will offer to bow out of her life and leave it to her to decide. If she decides to discontinue our correspondence, and **only** if she decides to discontinue our correspondence, I will abide by her wishes.  
  
Sincerely,  
Harry Potter  
  
==========  
  
17 March, 2001 (sent with Hedwig)  
  
Dear Dawn,  
  
I don't know if anyone's said anything to you or not, but your friend, Mr. Giles, sent me an owl asking me to stay away from you. I can understand his reasons, which I won't go into here (you can talk to him about them yourself), so if you decide that he's right and want me to stay out of your life, I will.  
  
So, have you named your owl yet?  
  
Harry  
  
==========  
  
March 24, 2001 (sent with Dawn's owl)  
  
Dear Harry,  
  
I've named my owl Joy, because it's sort of like my mom's name. I know it's weird, naming an owl for my mom, but I read something on eagle owls and it said that they can live 60 years in captivity. I'm not sure if this counts as "captivity" or not, but my mom's name might be good if she does live for 60 years. At least better than naming, like, a hamster after her. You know?  
  
You said that your folks left you some money. Are you an orphan or something? And what's the _Daily Prophet_?  
  
I heard about the owl that Giles sent to you. When I didn't say anything about it, he finally broke down and got onto Buffy about it. She agreed with me. No matter what kinds of things you might go through, it's not like I'm not in just as much danger here. I don't know if it's safe to say things like this by owl, but what the -heck- hell.   
  
Sunnydale is on something called the Hellmouth. It means that it's sort of a meeting point for demons, vampires, all sorts of creepy things like that. Well, not all demons are creepy. I've got a friend who's a demon. But that's beside the point. The point is that anytime I go out after sundown around here, my life's in danger. Why would having you for a penpal (owlpal?) be a problem?  
  
**HE JUST MAKES ME SO ANGRY!**  
  
Sorry. Almost ripped the paper there. But what gives him the right????!!!!  
  
I'd better stop before I get carried away.  
  
Love,   
Dawn  
  
==========  
  
March 26, 2001 (sent with Hedwig)  
  
Dear Harry,  
  
I kept Hedwig a little longer, just because there wasn't anything new to say. Now some of our other friends are on our side, too. They all say that Buffy and I are right, and that you can't possibly expose me to more danger than I'm already in.  
  
Giles sort of mumbled something about Griffindors? Gryffindors? However you spell it. About them having no respect or something. We didn't get it, but figured that you might be able to explain it to us.   
  
Well, in other news, I passed my history test!!! I was so afraid I was going to fail. But I didn't. Next week I have a math test. Ick.  
  
Love,  
Dawn  
  
==========  
  
2 April, 2001 (sent with Joy)  
  
Dear Dawn,  
  
I sometimes forget what things are like in Muggle school. I haven't had math in four years. But it's not that great, though. Instead I have Potions. Speaking of Ick. The teacher, Professor Snape, hates me and my friends for no apparent reason. I wish I knew what his problem is.  
  
I had a test Friday in Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Our teacher this year (we've had a different one every year) is a Auror, which means that he fights Dark wizards. Sometimes I think he's insane, but he seems nice other than that.   
  
Good luck on your math test.   
  
You asked about my parents. They died when I was a baby, so I don't really remember them. Though over the years, I've gotten a few memories of them back. Everyone says I look just like my father, though. But I have my mother's eyes. They say.  
  
I've been raised by my Muggle Aunt and Uncle, and then there's their son Dudley, a fat git who hates me. They're not much better, really. They're just not so obvious about how they feel about me. I'm a wizard and it scares them.  
  
I hate summers.   
  
The _Daily Prophet_'s a wizarding newspaper. One of their reporters seems to have it in for me. She's always making such a big deal out of how I'm an orphan and everything. She makes me out to be this tragic figure. She takes anything you say, and exaggerates it until you don't even recognize it anymore. She just wrote this horrible piece about how my friend, Hermione, is two-timing me with her boyfriend, Viktor. And I'm not dating Hermione, let alone being two-timed by her. I'm not even interested in dating her.  
  
I'm not sure what your friend Mr. Giles means about Gryffindors. A lot of people think that Gryffindors get away with stuff that other Houses can't. Maybe that's it. My friends Fred and George are huge pranksters, and they're in Gryffindor, and they get away with it. And I've broken a few rules in my day. Always for good causes, of course.   
  
I think Joy's a nice name for your owl. She answers to it already, I see. And it's different enough from Joyce that no-one will know that you named her for your mom unless you tell them.  
  
Harry  
  
P.S. - I'm glad you're going to keep writing to me.  
  
==========  
  
April 10, 2001 (sent with Joy)  
  
Dear Harry,   
  
I'm trying to write with a quill for the first time. I hope I don't make too big a mess. Black's the only color of plain ink Giles had in the store. If I'd wanted some with pigs' blood or some kind of love potion in it, I could have bought a color, though. So I'm writing in black. Yuck.  
  
I (barely) passed my math test!!!!!!!  
  
Ugh. That reporter that you're dealing with sounds like a real bitch. Is there anything you can do to get her to leave you alone?  
  
I'm so sorry you have to spend your summers with a fat git who hates you. Maybe you could come spend the summer here? Or at least part of it? Have you ever been to California? We could go to the beach. One of my teachers is always going on about England, and she says that people there like to go to the beach.  
  
Let me know if you want to come for a visit, and I'll ask Buffy if it's all right.   
  
Love,  
Dawn   
  
P.S. - My hands are covered in ink. How do you write like this without making a huge mess?  
  
(fingerprints from where Dawn rolled up the parchment with ink on her hands)  
  
==========  
  
19 April, 2001 (sent with Joy)  
  
Dear Dawn,  
  
I'd love to come for a visit this summer. I've never been to California. And I've been told that people in Britain like going to the beach, too, but I've never been myself. The Dursleys (my aunt and uncle) weren't in the habit of taking me places like that. Let me know what Buffy says.  
  
I'm glad you passed your math test. I'm doing all right in my classes, except for Potions, which I don't really expect to do well in.   
  
Sometime, I'll have to send you some samples of Rita Skeeter's writing. It's just too awful for mere words to describe.  
  
As for writing with a quill, don't put so much ink on it at one time. I could send you a self-inking quill if you'd like. One of the good things about using a quill is that you can scrape off your mistakes if you want, rather than crossing them out.   
  
Though I kind of miss the notebook paper and purple ball-point pen ink you used to use.  
  
Harry  
  
==========  
  
April 27, 2001 (sent with Joy)   
  
Dear Harry,  
  
I'm trying like you suggested, with less ink on the quill. So far, so (blob) good.  
  
I asked Buffy if you could come for some time in the summer, and she said **YES!!!!** I'm so excited. Willow and Tara are excited, too. They've been wanting to meet you, since they're witches and all. Anya thinks it's cute that I have a "boyfriend." She's a little strange, but I think you'll like her.   
  
There's just so much I want to tell you, but I just don't feel right trusting it to a letter like this. You know?  
  
Giles seems to think that something bad will come from your visit, but he's been . . . weird about this whole thing from the beginning.  
  
I guess you have to ask your aunt and uncle for permission, now? I hope they say it's all right.  
  
Well, it's getting late and Joy just came back from hunting, so I'm going to send this now.   
  
By the way, you're the only person I ever send her to, so I'm beginning to think that I don't need to ask her to take my letters to you anymore. She just knows.  
  
Love,  
Dawn  
  
==========  
  
5 May, 2001 (sent with Joy)  
  
Dear Dawn,  
  
I do have to ask the Dursleys if I can visit, but they'll say yes. I have ways of making them go along with what I want, particularly when I want to stay with a friend for part of the summer. I'll tell you all about that when I see you face-to-face next time.  
  
I think they're usually pretty glad to be rid of me, frankly.  
  
And I really do know what you mean about having things to say. I think I know why Giles is reluctant to encourage us to be friends. But, again, it's one of those things that I should leave until we see each other in person.  
  
Harry   
  
==========  
  
20 May 2001 (sent with Hedwig)  
  
Dear Dawn,  
  
I know I'm probably worried needlessly, but I haven't heard from you in a while, and I just want to make sure that everything's all right.  
  
Everything is all right, isn't it?  
  
Harry  
  
~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Next: May 23, 2001 and a return to the narrative format!


	3. 3

Harry Potter and The Key, Chapter 3  
By: PepperjackCandy  
  
Disclaimer: All things Buffy are owned by Joss Whedon, Alien Enemy, 20th Century Fox, etc. The Harry Potter universe is owned by J.K. Rowling. I'm just putting them in the same bowl and mixing them up a bit. 8-)  
  
Once again, SPOILER WARNING for those who haven't seen Season 5 of Buffy or read Book 4 of Harry Potter.  
  
A/N: I'm **completely** unspoiled for Buffy, (except for the odd quote from Joss indicating that Buffy will somehow return sometime next season). So, from here on in, I'm winging it. If what I'm writing corresponds with any existing spoilers, then I'm surprised. If it happens to correspond with what actually happens in Season 6, I'm **very** surprised.  
  
Also, I seem to remember that there's a fireplace in Giles's apartment. Seems to me that it's on the right-hand side of the room as you look at his front door, but I can't find a definitive screencap anywhere. Well, if there isn't, there is now. Maybe he moved.  
  
========  
  
23 May, 2001 (since we're in Europe for this part of the tale) 9:00 a.m.  
  
"Harry?" Hermione asked as she looked over her copy of the _Daily Prophet_. "What's the name of your girlfriend?"  
  
"Dawn." He answered as he took a bite of his toast, unable to suppress a small smile at Hermione's use of the term 'girlfriend.'  
  
"Dawn Summers, right? Does she have a sister named Buffy?" Hermione continued.  
  
Harry, whose mouth was still full of toast, nodded.   
  
"Sunnydale, California?" She asked in a worried tone.  
  
"What are you getting at Hermione?" Ron asked.  
  
She turned the front page of the _Daily Prophet_ to face the two boys. "This."  
  
There, in 72-point type, the headline read, _And Then There Was One.  
  
by Rita Skeeter  
  
The superfluity of Vampire Slayers engendered by the near-death experience of Buffy Summers in 1997 was rectified today when Buffy Summers was killed while fighting the god Glorificus_ . . . .   
  
Harry couldn't read any farther. Terror seizing his chest, he grabbed the newspaper from Hermione's hands and made a beeline for Dumbledore's office.  
  
"Look." He said to the gargoyle. "I don't have time for guessing games. Please let me up to see Professor Dumbledore immediately."  
  
The gargoyle leaped aside and Harry could have sworn it had a surprised expression on its face as it did so.  
  
Harry knocked on Dumbledore's office door and then walked in. "Professor Dumbledore," he said. "May I be excused from classes for a few days?" He placed the story about Buffy's death on Dumbledore's desk.  
  
Dumbledore slid an oil lamp on his desk out of the way and pulled the newspaper closer toward him, reading it. "This is the sister of that Summers girl who was Cedric's most important thing, isn't it? Rumor has it that you and she have been writing to each other."  
  
"Yes sir. So you can see why I need to take some time off."  
  
"Actually," Dumbledore leaned back in his chair, "I don't. Surely your friend has other friends and family she can turn to."  
  
"But none of them *understand,* sir."  
  
"Understand? Understand what?"  
  
"What it's like to lose everything. You see, Dawn's mother died a few months ago . . ."  
  
"And now her sister. Yes, yes. I see. But I cannot let you just go haring off to California like that. You're protected from Voldemort here, and at your aunt and uncle's house. But you wouldn't be protected there."  
  
"I don't care, sir. It's a risk I'm prepared to take."  
  
"You'd risk your life like that for this girl? She must mean an awful lot to you."  
  
"Yes, sir. She does." Harry hadn't realized how much, until the cold hand of terror had grabbed his heart at news of Buffy's death.  
  
"How will you get to California?"  
  
"I'll take muggle transportation. I have plenty of money. I can change it to muggle money and buy a plane ticket to California."  
  
"You know so much about using muggle transportation, do you?"  
  
"What's there to know? You get on a plane at one end, you get off at the other. Like riding the Hogwarts Express." He shrugged.  
  
"And besides, I'm 14 years old. If I get confused, people will help me out, I'm sure."  
  
"And what if I won't let you back into Hogwarts after you come back?" Dumbledore asked.  
  
Harry shrugged. "I'll go to muggle school."  
  
"You would, wouldn't you?" He sighed heavily. "All right. Go pack your things. I'll make your travel arrangements. No muggle transportation for you. Takes too long. And I'll contact one of our alumni who lives in Sunnydale to keep watch over you while you're in town."  
  
Harry couldn't believe his ears. "Really, sir?"  
  
"Yes. Really. Now go and get packed. Remember to pack muggle clothes only. You won't need robes in California."  
  
Harry smiled. "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." He dashed from the room and bounded down the stairs.  
  
Dumbledore slid the oil lamp back where it had been when Harry walked in. "Now, as I was saying, we'll need a temporary emergency connection to the floo network in Sunnydale California."  
  
"Where, specifically, sir?"  
  
Dumbledore sighed heavily. "While I'm contacting Rupert Giles to arrange for him to watch over Harry for us, I'll make sure to ask him if he has a fireplace and then I'll get back to you."  
  
Dumbledore extinguished the flame of the lamp, then lit it again. "_Voco_ Rupert Giles!" He called out softly.  
  
After everything that had happened with Dick Wilkens in 1999, the police had been more than willing to accept the tale that Buffy's death had been an accident, and after they had left the scene of Buffy's death, the Scoobies and Spike had taken Dawn home.  
  
Giles, for his part, couldn't wait to get out of the clothes he'd been wearing when he killed Ben, so he went back to his apartment. Killing Ben had been necessary, unavoidable, he assured himself, not feeling very reassured.  
  
That was when he saw the whiskey decanter. It sat there, calling to him, telling him that it could make him feel better about Ben's death, make him forget about Buffy's. Everything would be right with his world, and all for one drink. He shut his ears to it, heading instead for the shower.   
  
A few minutes later, feeling cleaner, but not any better, Giles came back into his living room wearing his bathrobe. The decanter was still singing its siren song, and this time Giles listened. He unstoppered the decanter, splashing about two fingers' worth into the bottom of a glass.   
  
He downed the liquor in one gulp and was about to go back for another when he saw the glow from the oil lamp on his mantel.   
  
Wondering who it could be, he sighed. "_Respondeo._"  
  
"Is this Rupert Giles?"  
  
"Yes?" Giles knew the speaker. He was sure of it. But he couldn't quite place the voice.  
  
"This is Albus Dumbledore, of Hogwarts."  
  
That was who it was! He hadn't heard the voice of his old headmaster in longer than he cared to think about. In fact, he didn't really care to think about his old headmaster, either.  
  
He suppressed these feelings. "Yes, Professor Dumbledore."   
  
"I need to ask a favor of you. News of the Slayer's death came out in the _Daily Prophet_ this morning, and one of our students has taken it into his head that he needs to come to Sunnydale."  
  
"Let me guess," Giles responded bitterly, "Harry Potter."  
  
"Ah. So you know that Harry has been in contact with Miss Summers?"  
  
"Against my most stringent objections, yes."  
  
"Well, be that as it may, I need you to keep an eye on Harry while he's in Sunnydale."  
  
Dumbledore seemed able to read the petulant refusal in Giles's heart, for next he said, "Voldemort is after Harry. I think he might be preparing to rise again. You know we cannot afford to have Harry fall into Voldemort's hands, Rupert."  
  
"Is there anything you can do to keep Potter at Hogwarts?" Giles asked without hope.  
  
"No. I asked him what he would do if I forbid him to go, and he told me that he'd take muggle transportation, and that he'd even finish his education at a muggle school if he needed to, to be able to be with Dawn through this."  
  
Giles snorted. "Sounds like a bloody Gryffindor all right."  
  
"I heard that, Giles."  
  
"You were meant to."   
  
"There's more to Harry than you might think, based on his House. But you don't have to like him. If defeating Voldemort means anything to you, you'll agree to protect him just for that sake."  
  
Giles sighed, knowing that Dumbledore had just played the one card he couldn't beat. "All right. When should I expect him?"  
  
"Do you have a fireplace?"  
  
Giles was surprised. "It's that important, is it?"  
  
"Actually it is. Muggle transport takes too long. So, since he's not old enough to Apparate, and there's no time to build a Portkey, the floo network's all that's left."  
  
"I have a fireplace here in my apartment. You might want to warn him that it's rather small, though."  
  
He could hear triumph in Dumbledore's tone. "I'll have it hooked up to the floo network, and Harry will be there within the hour."  
  
Sure enough, just after Giles had changed into clean clothes, he returned to his living room to find a pair of legs sticking down from his chimney. A boy's voice called out, "Hello? Is anyone there?"   
  
"Hang on a minute," Giles walked to the fireplace and grasped the boy's ankles. "You ready?" He asked.  
  
"I guess so," the boy responded in a dubious tone.  
  
Giles lifted him up slightly, then gently slid his legs out of the fireplace, until the boy was seated on the floor of the fireplace, a small overnight bag clutched in his hand.  
  
The only spot of color on the boy was the bright green of his eyes, everything else was black with soot. His hair stuck up all over.  
  
The boy sneezed. As he climbed out of the fireplace and straggled to his feet, he said, "Hi. Are you Rupert Giles?"  
  
Rupert nodded. "And you must be Harry Potter." He tried to keep his tone neutral. "We'll go over to Dawn's house momentarily, but you probably want to get cleaned up first. There's a bathroom through there."  
  
"Thanks." Harry gave Giles a half-smile and took his bag into the bathroom.  
  
Giles heard water running and reminded himself to call his cleaning lady to do something about that bathroom after Harry was done. Moments later, Harry emerged, his skin pink from scrubbing. Only those same green eyes and dishevelled hair marked him as the same boy who'd gone into the bathroom.  
  
"Ready to go?" Giles asked shortly.  
  
Harry nodded, and they walked to the door. "Thank you."  
  
"For what?" They left the apartment and Giles locked it behind him. Harry noticed that it was dark outside. Then he remembered the time difference. It was something like six hours earlier in California than in Britain.*  
  
"Partly for the bathroom, but mostly letting me come visit Dawn."  
  
"I didn't have much choice. Professor Dumbledore said you'd come whether or not I approved."  
  
Harry wasn't sure what to say to that, so he changed the subject. "You went to Hogwarts?"  
  
Giles nodded.   
  
They climbed into the car and buckled their seatbelts. "What House were you in?"  
  
"Ravenclaw."  
  
"I don't know many Ravenclaws. I share classes with Hufflepuff and Slytherin, though. With Hufflepuff, I have Herbology, and then with Slytherin, I have . . ."  
  
"Potions."  
  
"And Care of Magical Creatures. How did you know that I have Potions with the Slytherins?"  
  
"Gryffindor and Slytherin have always had Potions together. Even back in my day."  
  
"But you were a Ravenclaw . . ."  
  
"I said that I was a Ravenclaw. I didn't say that my friends were."  
  
--------------  
  
*Actually, it's eight hours earlier, so when it was 9:00 a.m. at Hogwarts, it was 1:00 a.m. in Sunnydale, and it's probably about an hour and a half later now, so it's 2:30 a.m. in Sunnydale.


	4. 4

Harry Potter and The Key, Chapter 4  
By: PepperjackCandy  
  
Disclaimer: All things Buffy are owned by Joss Whedon, Alien Enemy, 20th Century Fox, etc. The Harry Potter universe is owned by J.K. Rowling. I'm just putting them in the same bowl and mixing them up a bit. 8-)  
  
Once again, SPOILER WARNING for those who haven't seen Season 5 of Buffy or read Book 4 of Harry Potter.   
  
=========  
  
Harry was silent for the rest of the trip, thinking about what Giles had said. _Did he mean that all of his friends when he was at Hogwarts were Slytherins? That's what he must have meant. Does he support Voldemort, then? Seems that most Slytherins do. Draco's father does. And Snape does. Or did. But Dumbledore wouldn't send me to one of Voldemort's supporters, would he? But what if Dumbledore doesn't know? That's stupid, because if Giles supports Voldemort because of who his friends were when he was at Hogwarts, Dumbledore certainly would know about it . . ._  
  
"We're here." Giles said shortly, and Harry noticed that they'd pulled up in front of a brick house. At least, it looked like it was brick - it was too dark to see clearly.  
  
Harry and Giles got out of the car and silently walked up the sidewalk to the front door. Giles knocked twice, then opened the door.   
  
Harry saw a roomful of people, their eyes all red and swollen from crying. An air of hopelessness surpassing anything Harry had ever experienced filled the room. Dawn sat on the sofa, her head pillowed on the shoulder of the only person in the room whose eyes weren't red, a young man with obviously bleached-blond hair. A red-haired young woman sitting on the sofa next to her held Dawn's right hand.  
  
All eyes turned to the door as Giles and Harry walked into the room.   
  
Dawn lifted her head slightly. "Harry?" She asked.   
  
"I heard." He said simply. "Hope you don't mind."  
  
She shook her head. "No. I hoped you'd . . . but I thought . . ."  
  
No longer seeing any of the other people in the room, Harry walked over to her and placed his hand on her mouth. "Shh." He said. "Don't talk. Save your strength." Then he took her left hand in his and sat on the floor next to the right leg of the blond man, facing a blonde woman also sitting on the floor, who had the redhead's right hand.  
  
How long they sat like this, Harry wasn't sure. Him with his right arm rested on the seat of the sofa, Dawn's hand in his, silently willing as much strength to her as he could.  
  
Finally, though, the young dark-haired man on the other side of the room fell asleep, his chin resting on his chest. He jerked awake.   
  
"Why don't you go on up to bed, Xander," the red-haired woman said. "You can use," she looked at Dawn for confimation, "any room but Dawn's."  
  
After Xander left the room, the woman with honey-blonde hair who'd been sharing his chair with him said, "I'm going to go with him. Upstairs. With him." There was nervousness in her tone, and she fidgeted and pointed vaguely in the direction Xander had gone.  
  
"'Night, Anya." The red-haired woman said, and the honey-blonde woman disappeared up the stairs so quickly, Harry almost could have believed that she'd Disapparated.  
  
Harry thought idly that if the honey-blonde's name was Anya, then the redhead and the blonde on the floor next to him must be Willow and Tara. He'd looked forward to meeting them, once.  
  
Somewhere in the house, a clock tolled 3:00 a.m. The redhead started to cry again, and the blonde moved up to her lap, holding her and stroking her hair. Eventually, the blonde started crying, too, and this time it was the redhead's turn to be the comforter.  
  
Eventually, all cried out once again, they fell asleep in each other's arms.  
  
Dawn released Harry's hand momentarily and turned towards the two women. "Willow? Tara?" She shook them gently.   
  
"Hm?" The blonde said, gazing blearily at Dawn.  
  
"Why don't the two of you go on up to bed. You can use whatever room Xander and Anya aren't in."  
  
The blonde nodded. "Will? Wake up." She nudged the redhead gently.   
  
"Wha?"   
  
"We're going to go upstairs."  
  
"'Kay."  
  
Linking hands, the two women went upstairs.  
  
Harry wasn't sure what to do - whether he should take the spot that the redhead - Willow, he guessed - had vacated or stay there on the floor.  
  
Dawn solved that problem by looking down at Harry and patting the sofa on her right-hand side.  
  
"Thanks." He moved to sit on Dawn's right-hand side, and Dawn put her head on his shoulder, reaching out for the blond man with her left hand this time. Harry ran his fingers through her auburn hair in what he hoped was a consoling manner.   
  
They sat in silence until Dawn eventually started to fall asleep where she sat.   
  
"You should go get some sleep," Harry told her.  
  
"I'm all right," she mumbled, "just resting my . . ."  
  
Harry and the blond man looked at each other met each other's eyes over her sleeping form. Harry propped her up as Spike lifted her in his arms to carry her upstairs.  
  
Spike lay Dawn gently on her bed, and pulled the covers up as Harry went to the window and opened it to let Joy out to hunt.   
  
"But where will you sleep?" Were Dawn's last words before sleep claimed her.   
  
"I don't need to sleep," they said in similar dismissive tones.  
  
Surprised, they looked at each other, and, by mutual silent agreement, headed downstairs.  
  
"I'm just dying for a fag," Spike complained once they were downstairs, pulling a cigarette out of his pack. "You coming with?" He asked as he opened the door.  
  
"Sure." Harry shrugged as he glanced into the living room and saw that Giles had taken over the sofa, where he was snoring peacefully.  
  
They moved out onto the steps of the house, and Spike lit his cigarette. He took a long drag. "You want one?" He held the pack out to Harry, who gracefully refused.   
  
"Spike." The blond man introduced himself, extending his right hand for Harry to shake.  
  
Harry shook Spike's hand. "Harry Potter." He noticed that Spike's hand was awfully cold.  
  
"*The* Harry Potter?" Spike asked.  
  
"Well, *a* Harry Potter, certainly." Harry responded.  
  
"Good answer." Spike gave Harry an approving smile. "Don't want to give any more information than you need to people you don't know.  
  
"So, why don't you sleep?"   
  
Harry shrugged. "Well, partly because it's what? 11:00 a.m. my time?"  
  
"You in London?"  
  
"Scotland."  
  
"Close enough. It's noon your time. Eight hour difference. Remember that, it'll come in handy the next time you . . . drop in for a visit." Spike dropped his cigarette butt to the ground and lit another one. "You sure you don't want one?"  
  
"No, thanks."  
  
"And what's the other reason?"  
  
"Other reason?"  
  
"Why you don't sleep."  
  
"Oh. Well, I go to school all day, then study all evening, then I usually have a detention. And then there are my after-hours activities."   
"Like what?" Spike asked, intrigued.  
  
"Following spiders through the forest, sneaking food from the kitchens, conspiring to free the house-elves, listening to golden eggs underwater in the Prefects' bathroom . . ."  
  
"And I thought *my* mates're strange."   
  
"Well, with one thing and another, I just lost most of my need to sleep." Harry sat down on the step next to Spike. "How about you? Why don't you need to sleep?"  
  
"I'm a vampire."  
  
Harry jumped back up. "A vampire!" He exclaimed, startled. "You aren't going to . . . you know . . ."   
  
"No, I'm not going to bite you. Sit back down."  
  
"But, if you're a vampire. . . Buffy was the Slayer, wasn't she?"  
  
Spike nodded. "And I loved her."  
  
The painful simplicity in Spike's tone drew Harry to sit back down on the step next to him again.  
  
"But how . . ."  
  
"Does it matter? She was bright, and beautiful. She glowed like the sun. Like the moon. Like the stars.  
  
"I know what you're thinking. It doesn't make sense. But when does love ever make sense?"  
  
Harry hated breaking the vampire's romantic mood, so he merely shrugged silently.  
  
Spike grew silent, also. They sat watching the night for a while pass into morning. At quarter of five, Spike stood. "Almost sunrise. Got to get inside. You coming?"  
  
"I'll be there in a minute," Harry said as he looked up into the now navy-blue sky. He saw a familiar white shape ghosting towards the house and into Dawn's bedroom window. He was glad he had left Dawn's bedroom window open. That way Hedwig could make herself comfortable without waking her.  
  
When Harry went back into the house, Spike had pulled a chair well away from the range of the windows and was curled up in it reading a book of poetry. Harry sighed, wished he'd thought to bring his novel with him, and went into the kitchen.  
  
Once he was in the kitchen he dug through the cabinets until he found a bag of pretzels. He pulled his wand out, determined to see how many different colors he could turn the pretzels. _Red. That was easy._ He slid the now-red pretzel to one side.   
  
_Orange. Not too bad._ The orange one joined the red one.   
  
_Yellow. The color of sunflowers. Pretty._   
  
By the time Willow and Tara came downstairs, Harry had a rainbow of pretzels on the table. The one Harry thought was Willow, the redhead, grabbed the teal one, popping it in her mouth. "Mm. Not bad. Still tastes like a pretzel."  
  
"What did you expect it to taste like?" Harry asked with genuine curiosity.  
  
She shrugged. "Dunno. I just figured that it'd taste, you know, different."   
  
"You want one?" Harry asked the blonde, who merely shook her head.  
  
"Oh. We never introduced ourselves last night." The redhead said. "I'm Willow."   
  
"Oh. So you," he spoke to the blonde, "must be Tara?"  
  
"How'd you know that?" Tara asked, watching with fascination as Harry created a new teal pretzel.  
  
"Dawn talks about you a lot. She says you're both witches."  
  
"So what're you doing?" Willow asked, glad to think of something besides Buffy, "Homework?"  
  
"No. Just seeing how many different colors I can come up with. Hold out your hand."  
  
Willow complied, and Harry put a pretzel in it, and turned it the same peachy-pink of Willow's skin.   
  
"I guess I'm now to the point where I'm making up colors," he said as he looked at his most recent pretzel, a golden blue.   
  
"That's a pretty color. Could I have it?" Tara asked as she took a seat across from Willow.  
  
"Sure." Harry smiled gently at her as she took the pretzel and bit into it.  
  
"It's good." She said.  
  
"Good morning." A groggy voice behind Harry said.  
  
"Morning, Dawn." Willow and Tara smiled gently. "Harry here was just . . ."  
  
"Harry?" Dawn seemed to see him for the first time. "You really are here." She threw her arms around his neck, hugging him.  
  
"I got here last night. Didn't you remember?"   
  
She gave him a sad smile. "When I woke up, Hedwig was there with a note from you, so I thought I must have dreamed it. So I answered the note and came downstairs."  
  
"You answered it?" Harry asked. "I wonder what . . ."  
  
_Tap, tap, tap._   
  
Everyone looked around for the source of the tapping. "The window!" Willow said, running over to that side of the room and pulling aside the curtains.   
  
With a half-grin, she opened the window, and Hedwig flew in, looking from Harry to Dawn and back again with what looked very like a smile on her face. She extended her right leg for Harry to take the note off.   
  
"Do I need to read this?" He asked Dawn.  
  
"No. I just told you what happened to Buffy, and about the dream that I had that you were here in Sunnydale."   
  
Harry smiled and slipped the note into his pocket, to put it with Dawn's other notes.  
  
The rest of the day, Harry didn't do much but be supportive of Dawn. When she went upstairs to cry, he went with her and held her, her tears soaking into his shirt. At lunchtime, Harry made his best stab at fixing lunch for the rest, but he didn't have much experience with cooking, so he eventually settled for heating up some condensed soup and leaving bread and lunchmeat out on the counter. They opted to order delivery pizza for dinner.  
  
That night, when Dawn went up to bed, she asked Harry to come with her.  
  
They walked upstairs and didn't come down for a long time.   
  
Finally, Spike stood and headed for the stairs.   
  
"Where are you going?" Willow asked.  
  
"I'm going to go up there and make sure that that wizard's not deflowering our little girl." He spat.  
  
"Harry wouldn't do that. He's not like that." Willow insisted.  
  
"Oh? How do you know that?"  
  
"Because . . . Dawn told us so." Willow finished with false bravado.  
  
"And that's what a seducer of young women would *want* you to think." Spike said as he headed for the stairs again.  
  
Willow threw herself in his path. When she insisted, "I'll go upstairs and check on them," the vampire backed down and returned to his chair in the corner.  
  
Willow climbed the stairs as quietly as possible, not sure if she was doing it to avoid disturbing them, or to avoid warning them of her presence.  
  
She cracked Dawn's door open quietly, and found Dawn asleep on the bed, with Harry asleep in a nest of blankets on the floor by her side.  
  
=========  
  
A/N: Before someone tells me that Harry hadn't found out about Snape's former Death Eater status before May 23, you're right! However, Harry's a smart kid. He probably figured it out from watching Snape and Karkaroff talking about the Dark Mark on Karkaroff's arm that it had something to do with Voldemort.  
  
"And I thought *my* mates're strange." Is courtesy of my dear husband, Andy. 


	5. 5

Harry Potter and The Key, Chapter 5  
By: PepperjackCandy  
  
Disclaimer: All things Buffy are owned by Joss Whedon, Alien Enemy, 20th Century Fox, etc. The Harry Potter universe is owned by J.K. Rowling. I'm just putting them in the same bowl and mixing them up a bit. 8-)  
  
Once again, SPOILER WARNING for those who haven't seen Season 5 of Buffy or read Book 4 of Harry Potter.   
  
=========  
  
"Good morning."   
  
Harry was used to being awakened, but usually the voice was that of his roommate Ron. Or, less often, Neville, Dean or Seamus. This wasn't any of them. It was a girl's voice.  
  
He woke up immediately with a "Wha?" And looked right into the gently-smiling face of Dawn Summers.  
  
"You startled me." Harry said, chagrined.  
  
"Oh. Sorry. You want to go downstairs and get some breakfast?"  
  
He smiled at her and stood up. "Sure."  
  
When they got downstairs, they found that the only people left in the house were themselves, Willow, Tara and Spike, who had already gone down to the basement to rest.  
  
"Where're Xander, Anya and Giles?" Dawn asked as she took a seat at the table and poured herself a bowl of cereal.  
  
"Xander and Anya went to get a start on making the arrangements." Willow informed them.   
  
"And Giles?" Dawn asked.  
  
"He said he had some work to do at the shop. He said he'd meet us at the funeral parlor after Anya's softened the mortician up."  
  
Giles was in the exercise room behind the magic shop, taking out his frustrations on the punching bag. Ever since Dumbledore had put him in charge of the Potter boy, he'd been reliving his own Sorting. And remembering what it was that had drawn him to socialize with Slytherins in the first place.  
  
He punctuated his remembrances with punches and kicks at the bag.  
  
_Intelligence. punch A thirst for knowledge, yes. punch, kick And the heart of a lion. punch Excellent. No tolerance for tedium. punch, kick, punch Not very ambitious, though. punch You won't go far on the Watchers' Council without ambition.kick, kick  
  
Watchers' Council? punch, kick, punch  
  
Don't tell me you didn't know? punch  
  
Know what?  
  
Why, that you're destined to become a Watcher, of course. punch, kick  
  
No. I didn't know. punch  
  
Oh. Talking out of turn. Sorry. punch, kick, punch  
  
Well, as I was saying. Abundant courage. That makes you prime material for . . . punch, kick  
  
Don't say it! punch  
  
Why not?  
  
I. punch. Don't. punch. Want. punch. To. punch. End. punch. Up. punch. In. punch. Gryffindor. PUNCH!  
  
But why not? punch, kick, punch  
  
Giles showed the Hat his cousin, who started out all right, punch but after a few years in Gryffindor House, had become a Gryffindor snob. Everything he owned had to be scarlet, or gold, or both. He still checked the Daily Prophet every day to see how Gryffindor's latest Quidditch match went. punch, kick  
  
Oh. Well, they're not all like that, punch, kick, punch I assure you.  
  
I won't go to Gryffindor. You said I have a thirst for knowledge. Why not Ravenclaw?  
  
But I really feel you'd do better in Gryffindor. punch  
  
Look. I come from an old wizarding family, with ties in France. punch, kick, punch If you don't put me in Ravenclaw, I will go to Beauxbatons. punch, kick  
  
Well, if you put it that way, I guess it's RAVENCLAW!_  
  
After Willow and Tara had finished their breakfast and had gone upstairs to shower and get dressed and Spike had gone down into the basement for some rest, Dawn and Harry sat at the table finishing their breakfast.  
  
"Actually, now that Giles is gone . . ." Harry began.  
  
"I know you're wondering about what I meant . . ." Dawn said simultaneously.  
  
They both smiled.  
  
"You go first," Dawn said.  
  
"No. You go first." Harry insisted.  
  
"What I have to say might affect how long you want to stay in Sunnydale."  
  
"Well, what *I* have to say might affect how long you want me to stay in Sunnydale."  
  
"You want to flip a coin for it?"  
  
Harry gave up. "No. You go first."  
  
Dawn stared into her cereal bowl for a minute, drawing circles in the milk with her spoon. "I'm not . . . well, I am, but I haven't always been."   
  
She started again. "I've practiced this so many times, but now I don't know what to say." She paused and looked up at Harry. "I . . . haven't always been human."  
  
"None of us have. I mean, we were all a sperm and an egg at one time, right?"  
  
"No." She shook her head. "I wasn't. Ever. I've only been human since last August. That's," she counted on her fingers. "Nine, almost ten, months."  
  
Harry nodded, for her to continue.  
  
"Before that, I was an energy source known as The Key. A god, Glorificus, needed to use it, me, to basically destroy this whole dimension and get back to her own place, you know, Hell. But a group of monks turned *it* into *me,* and made everyone believe that I was really the daughter of Hank and Joyce Summers. Including me.   
  
"It's really strange, 'cause I can remember living with my mom and dad until I was nine, but I've never even met him. And now I'm gonna have to go live with him." She said sadly.  
  
Harry thought that maybe the best thing to do would be to get her back onto the topic at hand, so he asked the next question on his mind. "And so this Key, that's why you were Cedric's most important thing, isn't it?"  
  
She nodded. "Yeah. They needed an untrained wizard to use as a power source, and his uncle sort of told him too much about what they were doing when they tested him. He knew how important I was to everything he loved, and subconsciously named me his most important thing.  
  
"Apparently, they spent days trying to find someone that even came a close second, but the . . . thing . . . Like a wine glass, but not?"  
  
"Goblet?"  
  
"Yeah. It kept showing them me and wouldn't accept his girlfriend or parents or anything else. Something about keeping the playing field level. You and the others had their most important things, and the Goblet wouldn't accept Cedric's second most important thing. They tried to convince it until the last possible minute, and finally the Goblet sort of took it into its head to get me itself. That's part of why they couldn't send me back right away. They had to figure out how I got there in the first place."  
  
"Did you know that you were the Key during the Second Task?" Harry asked.  
  
Dawn blushed and nodded. "But I had a good reason for not telling you. It was just so nice, forgetting that I was . . . made, and just pretending to be a normal teenaged girl getting a tour of a wizarding school."   
  
"Oh, it's all right that you didn't tell me until now. It's a pretty big thing to have to share with someone else." _And it makes it a little easier for me, since I didn't warn you about Voldemort before now._ He added silently.  
  
He stood up, and panic flashed through her eyes for a moment. He grasped her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. "I'll be back in a second. I have to go get something."  
  
Harry went into the living room and got his wand, then returned to the kitchen. He picked up their empty bowls and put them in the sink, and then dug around in one of the kitchen drawers for a moment.  
  
He returned to the table and put a toothpick down on it.   
  
"Right. It's all about energy, you see? This is a toothpick. It's a toothpick because all of the energy inside it is saying 'wood.' Now, if you can reorganize the energy so that it's saying, say, stainless steel," He pointed his wand at the toothpick, turning it from the inside to the outside into metal, "and then do this," he blunted one end, and made the other extra sharp, then added a hole to the blunt end, "what do you get?"  
  
Dawn picked it up. "It's a needle."   
  
"Yep. And is it any less of a needle because it used to be a toothpick?"  
  
There were tears gathering in her eyes as she shook her head _no._  
  
Willow came back into the room. "Hey, guys. What're you talking about. What's the matter, Dawn?"  
  
Dawn was still all teary as she said, "I told Harry about, you know, the Key, and look!" She handed the needle to Willow.  
  
"It's a needle." She looked slowly from Dawn to Harry and back again.  
  
"Harry made it for me. It used to be a toothpick."  
  
"Did you really? You learned that at your wizard school?" Her eyes widened in amazement.  
  
"It's no big deal." He shrugged. "I just wanted to make the point that she's not any less of a person because of how she got here."  
  
"No big deal?" Tara came into the room and Willow said, "Harry turned a toothpick into this," she held out the needle, "and he says it's no big deal."  
  
Tara's eyes widened as large as Willow's had been, if not larger. "We do need to get going, though, Will."   
  
"Oh, yeah. Right. That's what I came to tell you. That we're ready to go and that you two should go upstairs and get . . . showered and . . . changed and . . . things."  
  
Harry and Dawn walked back upstairs. "I'm sorry." Dawn said, still holding the needle in her hand.  
  
"Sorry for what?"   
  
"For embarrassing you."  
  
"I wasn't embarrassed." He blushed.  
  
"And thank you."  
  
"For what?"  
  
"For," she held out the needle. "This. The lesson. Believing in me. You can get ready in my mom's room." She pointed towards the room that had once belonged to Joyce.  
  
Harry walked that way, but stopped when Dawn called his name. She walked over to him and kissed him very lightly on the lips, making him blush even more.  
  
When Dawn got into her room, she took a spool of thread out of her dresser drawer and broke off a length. She then threaded it through the needle and knotted the end, and hung it over the corner of her mirror before getting her clothes ready for the day.  
  
After they were showered and dressed and ready to go, the foursome left the Summers house together, each couple walking hand-in-hand.  
  
Harry pulled Dawn a little away from the other couple. "By the way," he said, "you said in one of your letters that one of your friends is a former demon? Did you mean Spike?"  
  
"I was actually talking about Anya."  
  
"Anya? Of Xander-and-Anya?"  
  
Dawn and Harry climbed into the back seat of Willow's car and continued their conversation.  
  
"From what I've heard, she spent a thousand years or so as a vengeance demon. If a woman was scorned, Anya would provide her with a world in which the man who hurt her got exactly what that woman thought he deserved for hurting her. Or maybe she changed this world. I've never been clear on that. Somehow it was like both happened.   
  
"'Cause that's how she lost her powers. They were contained in a necklace she wore, and she provided Cordelia, she's one of Buffy's friends, the world that she wanted, and she lost it there."  
  
When they arrived at the funeral parlor, they found Anya chatting with the mortician like they were old friends. Xander sat to one side, a stunned expression on his face.   
  
The mortician saw the quartet walk into the room and immediately schooled his face into serious lines. "Miss Summers. I'm so sorry at your loss." He said in a sincere tone. "But you chose an excellent emissary. She drives a really hard bargain." His sincerity slipped a little and his eyes twinkled in Anya's direction.   
  
"I won't burden you with the details. Let's just say that you had some very unusual requests, such as holding the service tonight?"   
  
Dawn gripped Harry's hand more tightly as she nodded. "Yes. Well, some of her friends work all day and wouldn't be available to come to a daytime funeral."  
  
"Very well." He walked the six friends into his office just as they heard the outside door open again.  
  
"Hello? Is anyone here?" Giles's voice rang out.  
  
"We're in here, Giles." Willow called back.  
  
Giles saw Dawn leaning over the mortician's desk, pen in hand, about to sign on the proverbial dotted line. "Don't sign anything, Dawn!"  
  
She looked up. "Why not?"  
  
"Because, these morticians are all crooks and swindlers, that's why." He took the papers from Dawn and began to page through them. His face fell progressively farther as he paged through the document.   
  
"Oh." He said simply as he finished. "Go ahead, Dawn." He handed the sheaf of papers back to Dawn and looked over at Anya, nodding slightly in recognition of her ability as a negotiator.  
  
Dawn signed the pages and handed them back to the mortician.   
  
"Very well, Miss Summers. I will finish the arrangements and will see you here tonight for the funeral." 

=======

Next: a few guest appearances!


	6. 6

Harry Potter and The Key, Chapter 6  
By: PepperjackCandy  
  
Disclaimer: All things Buffy are owned by Joss Whedon, Alien Enemy, 20th Century Fox, etc. The Harry Potter universe is owned by J.K. Rowling. I'm just putting them in the same bowl and mixing them up a bit. 8-)  
  
Once again, SPOILER WARNING for those who haven't seen Season 5 of Buffy or read Book 4 of Harry Potter.   
  
=========  
  
When they returned from the funeral parlor, Willow went immediately to the answering machine. "Damn! No messages!" She swore as she picked up the phone and dialed.   
  
"It's Willow again. Is anyone there? Hello? Please call us at Buffy's house as soon as possible. It's important. Thank you."  
  
Sighing, she hung up the phone and sat down in one of the kitchen chairs. Tara came up behind her and as she began to rub her shoulders gently, Willow slumped forward onto the table. "Oh, that feels good." She moaned under her lover's massage.  
  
Eventually, Willow lifted her head up. "Where could they be?" She asked.  
  
"Will, you know the demon-fighting business isn't exactly nine-to-five." Tara reminded her gently, sitting in another chair.  
  
Harry and Dawn walked into the kitchen, holding hands. "Is this a good time?" He asked.  
  
Willow sat up straighter. "Sure. As good as any."  
  
Harry sat at a third chair and Dawn took the fourth.   
  
"What about me?" Tara asked. "Should I leave?"  
  
Harry shook his head. "Actually, you're a witch, so this sort of concerns you, too."  
  
The three women looked at Harry. He sighed.  
  
"All right. I'm going to assume that the two of you have been pretty much cut off from the wizarding world for your entire lives." He said to Willow and Tara. "How much has Giles told you about why he doesn't want me associating with Dawn?"  
  
All three shook their heads and shrugged.  
  
"That's what I thought. You see, back when the two of you were children, probably until you were about six or so, the wizarding world was being held under the thrall of a Dark wizard named Voldemort. Most witches and wizards today don't like to say his name," he rolled his eyes, "so they refer to him as _He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named,_ or, more often, just _You-Know-Who._"  
  
He said a short prayer that he wasn't about to make a huge mistake telling them this. "When I was one year old, Voldemort came after my parents. He killed them, but somehow I survived. It's where I got this." He pointed at the scar on his forehead. "Voldemort was . . . diminished somehow, in the process. Not killed exactly, but from what I can tell, not left alive, either. I'm rather famous for this. It's why Giles repeatedly asked Dawn if she was certain that Harry Potter was the boy who'd given her the tour of Hogwarts.  
  
"And since I somehow harmed Voldemort, his followers have been trying to kill me. And that's what Giles wants to protect Dawn from. He's afraid that she'll get caught up in all of this and get hurt on top of, you know, losing her mom and Buffy and everything."  
  
The three women were silent then, and Harry wrung his hands under the table. Then, Willow stood and wrapped her arms around him in a hug.   
  
"*That's* what Giles is so worried about?" She asked when she'd let Harry go. She snorted and rolled her eyes. "We've fought, and defeated, Master vampires, demons by the score, including one who used to be our mayor, and a god. And that's just for starters. If your Dark wizard has nothing better to do in the U.K. and he wants to come on out to Sunnydale, I say bring it on." She twinkled her eyes at him.  
  
Harry, disbelieving, looked from Dawn, to Tara, to Willow and back to Dawn again. "Really?"  
  
They all nodded and smiled encouragingly at him.   
  
He let out a breath that he didn't even know he'd been holding. "Thank you." He said to them all, as he pulled Dawn to him for a big hug. "Thank you so much," he repeated into Dawn's hair.  
  
Just then, Anya and Xander returned, freshly changed into clean clothes. Xander carried a garment bag over his arm. "Hey! What's up?" He asked the teary-eyed quartet as he walked into the kitchen.  
  
"Oh. You know. Dark wizards. Ultimate evil. The usual." Willow said chipperly as she went to get things out to start making lunch.  
  
"Oh. I was afraid something was wrong." Xander replied, shrugging as he snagged a slice of bread and took a bite.  
  
After they ate lunch, Xander and Anya went back to her apartment and Tara and Willow went up to Joyce's room rest up before the funeral.   
  
"Why don't you go upstairs and get some rest, too?" Harry suggested to Dawn.  
  
She shook her head. "I'm not tired."  
  
"You really should . . ."  
  
"*I'm* *not* *tired.*" She insisted.  
  
He sighed. "All right then. Let's watch the telly. I'll go in the kitchen and get some crisps."  
  
"Some what?"  
  
He gestured futilely with his hands. "Fried potato slices? Like we had with lunch."  
  
"Oh. Potato chips."  
  
Harry nodded and heard Dawn turn the television on as he walked into the kitchen. As he was looking through the cabinets, the phone rang. He answered it. "Hello?"  
  
"Who is this?" A woman's voice asked.  
  
"Harry . . ." He responded uncertainly.  
  
"Do I have the wrong number?" She asked. "Is Willow there?"  
  
"Oh! You want to talk to Willow! Just a minute."  
  
Harry walked through the living room and said to Dawn, "The phone's for Willow's. I'm going to go up and get her."  
  
Harry took the steps two at a time so that he could get to Joyce's room, where Willow and Tara were asleep, as quickly as possible. The two women were spooned together, Willow in front.   
  
Harry walked over and tapped her on the shoulder gently. "Willow." He whispered.  
  
"Huh?" She jumped as she came awake.  
  
"The telephone. It's for you." He whispered. "I thought it might have been whoever it was you rung up earlier."  
  
Willow nodded, clearly not fully awake, but comprehending him nonetheless.   
  
She gently lifted Tara's arm from her waist and sat up, standing and following Harry out into the hall.  
  
They walked back downstairs, and Willow went into the kitchen to pick up the phone, while Harry joined Dawn on the sofa.   
  
A few minutes later, Willow came out of the kitchen. "That was Cordy." She said to Dawn. "She, Angel and Wesley will be coming in for the funeral."  
  
Dawn gave Willow a half-smile. "Thanks, Will."  
  
"You're welcome." Willow yawned. "Well, I'm going to go lie down again. Don't do anything I wouldn't do." She grinned and winked as she mounted the stairs.  
  
A Muggle soap opera was on television, and Harry wrapped his arm around her shoulders as he got caught up in the ongoing tale of the husband who had just discovered that the woman who was pregnant with his baby was in fact his wife's identical twin sister, and not his wife at all.  
  
By the time the program changed, Dawn was asleep. Harry kissed her lightly on the top of her head and kept watching.  
  
As the sun began to sink in the west, Giles arrived to wake everyone up to get ready for the funeral.  
  
Harry realized that he hadn't thought to bring a suit, but he was saved in the nick of time by one of the Hogwarts school owls, who came carrying a box that contained a simple black suit from Seamus -- the only one of Harry's roommates who was raised Muggle and was near enough to Harry's size.   
  
"How did Seamus know I needed a suit?" He asked no one in particular.   
  
Giles cleared his throat self-consciously. "Um. I might have had something to do with that." He admitted sheepishly.  
  
When everyone in the room looked at him, he said, "I called Dumbledore yesterday morning to tell him that you'd be staying through the funeral. He must have taken it upon himself to arrange for a suit to be sent to you."  
  
Once the bathroom was free, Harry went upstairs and changed. Soon it was full dark outside, and everyone, including Spike, who'd arisen from his bier in the basement, was assembled and ready to head to the funeral parlor.  
  
When they arrived, they were the only people there, but soon graduates of Sunnydale High School's class of 1999, and classmates from college, and some of Dawn's classmates from school started filing in.   
  
Harry stuck to Dawn's side, and Dawn stayed close to Willow and Tara, so the quartet mixed through the crowd together, sharing condolences with people who had known Buffy since she moved to Sunnydale five years earlier.   
  
Suddenly, Willow gasped, followed closely by Tara.   
  
Harry saw a young man, as redheaded as a Weasley, walking towards them.   
  
Now Dawn gasped.   
  
Harry began to wonder if he should gasp, too, just to keep up with the others.  
  
"Oz!" Willow said when he arrived at their side. "What are you doing here?"  
  
The redheaded man shrugged. "I heard about Buffy, so I thought I should come." He said simply.   
  
"But how can you -- ?"  
  
Oz took a small bottle from his right-hand pocket. "Valium. Not something I want to do regularly, but it'll get me through for now."  
  
He looked at Tara. "Tara." He said without inflection, nodding his head.   
  
"Oz." She said in a similarly flat tone.  
  
Then he saw Dawn. "There you are!" He pulled Dawn into a hug. "How're you holding up?"  
  
Dawn nodded a little bemusedly as she hugged him back. "I'm keeping it together. With Harry's help." She released Oz and took Harry's hand.  
  
"Harry, this is Daniel Osborne. Oz, for short. Oz, this is Harry Potter."  
  
The color drained from Oz's face. "Harry Potter? *The* Harry Potter?"  
  
Harry sighed and rolled his eyes. "No. Just *a* Harry Potter." He lied.  
  
Harry could practically feel the redhaired man looking at his scar. "Fair enough."   
  
"Well, I've got to go. I think I saw Giles here?" Oz asked, his eyes caressing Willow's face.  
  
"He's somewhere over there." Willow indicated the other side of the room.   
  
As Oz walked away, Willow closed her eyes and hugged Tara to her, clinging desperately. "Why didn't I know he would show up?" She asked in a broken tone.  
  
"You couldn't have known." Tara responded rubbing her lover's back comfortingly.  
  
Dawn pulled Harry aside to allow Willow and Tara to have some privacy. "By the way, that's what I meant about everyone's memories being modified." She said to Harry.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Willow and Oz. They went together during high school. They broke up and he's been on the run since before I," she searched around for a word, "was born. We've never met. But he knows me."  
  
"And do you know him?"  
  
Dawn nodded. "I remember when he and Willow started dating, and how cute they were together. Not like Willow and Tara aren't cute together, but she and Oz had something special, too."  
  
Dawn's face fell. "I also remember when they broke up. I don't know all of the details, of course, just the things that Buffy would have told her 13 year old sister, but I do remember that Willow was completely crushed."  
  
Dawn looked at Harry. "And this is just one person. Just wait until I meet Cordy and Wesley again for the first time."   
  
=========  
  
A/N: Well, I didn't get as far into the funeral as I'd hoped to, but at least I was able to cover Oz's return and foreshadow the return of Angel, Cordy and Wesley.   
  
Also, yes, I 'ship both Willow/Oz and Willow/Tara. Does it show? ;-)


	7. 7

Harry Potter and The Key, Chapter 7  
By: PepperjackCandy  
Rating: PG  
  
Disclaimer: All things Buffy are owned by Joss Whedon, Alien Enemy, 20th Century Fox, etc. The Harry Potter universe is owned by J.K. Rowling. I'm just putting them in the same bowl and mixing them up a bit. 8-)  
  
Once again, SPOILER WARNING for those who haven't seen Season 5 of Buffy or read Book 4 of Harry Potter.   
  
A/N: This is my first posting since the WTC disaster. My heart and prayers go out to everyone touched by this tragedy.  
  
=========  
  
Harry walked around the mourners with Dawn, holding her hand as she accepted and shared condolences with people who'd known Buffy.  
  
Suddenly, she stopped short. "Oh, my God."   
  
"What?" Harry looked and saw a very short man, a good bit taller than a house elf, but extremely short by human standards, walking in, arm-in-arm with a tall blonde with an angelic face and eyes the color of aquamarines.  
  
"It's Mr. Snyder. He was principal when Buffy was in high school."  
  
"Who's the lady he's with?"  
  
She shrugged. "I don't know."  
  
Snyder and the blonde made it to Dawn's side. "Miss Summers, this is my wife, Erica."  
  
"I'm pleased to meet you, Mrs. Snyder." Dawn said. "This is Harry." She'd heard enough surprised exclamations of '*the* Harry Potter?' to last her the rest of her life, so she left Harry's last name off. Harry appreciated it.  
  
"Your sister was a troublemaker and a discipline problem." Snyder was interrupted as his wife elbowed him in the head gently. "But she will be missed." At a sharp look from Erica. "I will miss her. The world was richer for having her to help keep even worse trouble at bay."  
  
Dawn was touched by this uncharacteristic courtesy on the part of the former principal. "Thank you, Mr. Snyder."  
  
Snyder and Erica moved on. Moments later, Harry heard Xander's voice calling out just above the murmuring of the crowd. "Hey, Mr. Snyder! Good to see you!"  
  
As Harry and Dawn continued circulating through the crowds of mourners, they happened across a very distracted Giles.   
  
"What's the matter, Giles?" Dawn asked.  
  
"Huh?" Giles looked down at Dawn for a moment, then distractedly stared across the room again. "Oh. Nothing. Nothing's the matter."  
  
Harry looked the direction that Giles was staring in, where he saw the mortician, deep in conversation with a man wearing a jacket that had _CORONER_ written in large letters across the back.  
  
Giles looked down at them again. "Could you wait here a minute? I'll be right back." With that, he headed to the other side of the room.  
  
Before Harry and Dawn had a chance to discuss what had just happened, a deep male voice behind them said, "Hi."  
  
Dawn spun around. "Angel!" She threw herself into the arms of a tall, dark man. Harry could hear her sob as she started to cry again.  
  
Angel stroked the back of her head gently, crooning to her. "I know, sweetie. I know."  
  
A dark-haired woman stood nearby. She seemed to suddenly notice Harry there. "Oh. Hi. I'm Cordelia." She stuck out her hand.  
  
Harry took it. "Harry." He was still watching Angel comforting Dawn.  
  
"I talked to you on the phone earlier, didn't I?" Cordy asked. "That's our boss. Angel. We're . . . private investigators. And this is Wesley."  
  
A man that Harry hadn't noticed before came forward then. "Pleased to . . ." He started in a clipped British accent that reminded Harry of home, then he stopped. "Oh, my God." He reached one trembling hand forward and brushed Harry's hair out of his face. If his eyes widened any more, they would have popped clean out of his head. "Oh, my God." He repeated. "You're . . ."  
  
Harry sighed and rolled his eyes just as Dawn interrupted them. "Wesley, don't!"   
  
Wesley looked vaguely affronted by the interruption. "But he's . . ."  
  
Dawn stepped in between Harry and Wesley. "We know. He doesn't like all that Boy-Who-Lived stuff, Wesley." She hissed.  
  
Harry, meanwhile, had retreated to rest his head against one of the walls of the room. He longed for the stone walls of Hogwarts, which felt so cool against his forehead. He wondered briefly if there was some kind of charm to cool plaster . . .  
  
"Hi." Harry recognized the voice. It was Dawn.  
  
"Hi."  
  
"You wanna come on back?" She asked. "Wesley's promised not to make a big deal out of . . . you know."  
  
"Sure." He smiled at her and they walked to rejoin Angel and his cohorts.  
  
"Harry, this is Angel." She leaned over and whispered in his ear. "He and Buffy used to be a couple."  
  
"Pleased to meet you." Harry held out his hand. When Angel shook it, Harry noticed that his skin was cool to the touch, just as Spike's had been.  
  
Willow and Tara joined them, then, and exchanged hugs and sympathy with Angel and Cordy while Wesley stood off to one side, looking uncomfortable.  
  
"They want to get started on the funeral." Willow said to Dawn, who nodded silently.  
  
Harry tried to hang back, but Dawn wouldn't let go of his hand, and so he ended up being dragged along to sit with the "family" in the front row, which consisted of Willow, Tara, Giles, Xander, and Anya. There were eight seats per row, and this left one empty. Spike and Angel apparently both had designs on that one chair, for they circled each other like leopards for a moment before Cordy stood and whispered something to Angel that made the tall, dark-haired man quietly take a seat with her and Wesley in the second row. He glared at Spike as the blond vampire took the final seat.  
  
"Is there some, er, bad blood between Spike and Angel?" Harry asked.   
  
Dawn's eyes widened in shock.   
  
"Angel's a, well, you know, too, isn't he?"  
  
Dawn nodded. "How did you know?"  
  
"He's cold to the touch, too. Just like Spike."  
  
All of the other attendees filtered into their seats as the priest of the Episcopalian church that Buffy and Joyce attended sporadically took his place at the podium and began the service.  
  
"I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die."  
  
After he concluded the abbreviated form of the Burial Rite for the Dead, the priest relinquished the podium to anyone who wanted to say a few words about Buffy.  
  
First up was Willow.  
  
She closed her eyes for a moment, whispering something under her breath. Then she opened her eyes and began to speak.  
  
"Buffy was one of my best friends. We all relied on her to do the right thing, to be there for us, to always be able to lend a hand when it was needed. And I'll miss her."  
  
Willow left the podium and Spike took her place.  
  
"I loved her." He said simply. "I loved her with every fiber of my being. I still do. She was everything good, and right, and perfect in the world to me. Only," he looked up at Angel and something wordless passed between them, "she didn't love me. Her heart belonged to someone else."  
  
Harry's heart went out to the blond vampire as Spike left the podium.  
  
Everyone looked around for a moment, and then Dawn stood.  
  
"I'd like to thank everyone for coming. Buffy would be glad to know that so many people cared about her. This means a lot to me, and to my family." Her eyes flicked from Giles, to Willow and Tara, to Xander and Anya, to Spike, and finally to Harry. "Thank you."  
  
She stepped down from the podium and returned to her seat by Harry, clutching his hand until her knuckles were white, as the attendees began to silently file out of the room.   
  
=========  
  
A/N: Snyder's wife is the result of an on-line BTVS writing project that I did with a few friends. If you're out there, Melody, yes, I mean you. 


	8. 8

Harry Potter and The Key, Chapter 8  
By: PepperjackCandy  
  
Disclaimer: All things Buffy are owned by Joss Whedon, Alien Enemy, 20th Century Fox, etc. The Harry Potter universe is owned by J.K. Rowling. I'm just putting them in the same bowl and mixing them up a bit. 8-)  
  
Once again, SPOILER WARNING for those who haven't seen the first five seasons of Buffy or read the first four Harry Potter books.   
  
A/N: For those who pointed out that Snyder died in "Graduation Day," I say "show me the body and I'll believe it." ;-) I loved Snyder (though I was disappointed that he didn't turn out to be a leprechaun) and am in an advanced state of denial about his death.  
  
I figured I'd better get back on this, considering that as I write, we're 16 hours and 15 minutes from the Season 6 premiere.  
  
=========  
  
Harry held Dawn's hand as they finished burying her sister and revealed the headstone, which Anya had paid for herself, which read:   
  
_Buffy Anne Summers  
1981-2001  
Beloved sister, devoted friend  
She saved the world a lot_  
  
Harry felt humbled by the things he'd heard about Buffy. She literally had saved the world many times, and Harry was finding himself hard-pressed to save England three times, even with the invaluable assistance of Ron and Hermione.   
  
They were an odd assortment who'd traveled to the gravesite - Giles, Dawn, Willow, Tara, Xander, Anya, Spike, Angel, Cordy, Wesley and himself. Two vampires, two witches, two - no, Dawn said that Wesley was a Watcher, just like Giles was, so better make that three wizards, an interdimensional energy source, a vengeance demon, and Xander and Cordy. And Harry could see Oz in the distance following behind them.   
  
There was something about him that reminded Harry of Remus Lupin, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. _He couldn't be a werewolf, could he?_ Harry wondered briefly, but noticing the full moon overhead* dismissed that notion entirely.  
  
They walked back towards their cars, exchanging hugs and mumbled farewells with the visitors from Los Angeles. Oz silently got into his van and drove away.   
  
His voice cracked as Giles spoke for the first time in what seemed like ages. "We will need to meet at Buffy's . . . at Dawn's house for a bit before we split up for the evening.  
  
Harry found Giles's use of the word 'evening' amusing, since sunrise was only a few short hours away.  
  
He and Dawn got into the back seat of Willow and Tara's car and the four returned to Dawn's house.  
  
Soon, all eight were assembled in the living room. Giles paced restlessly back and forth. "I learned some . . . disturbing news while we were at the funeral parlor. It seems there's been a sharp increase in unexplained deaths recently."  
  
"'Unexplained deaths'?" Xander quoted back.  
  
Giles nodded. "Yes, as in the bodies-found-in-alleyways-drained-of-blood variety. It seems that the county coroner's office has run out of space and they're starting to store . . . incoming bodies in area funeral homes."  
  
"Well, I guess the break's over." Xander said, standing. "Anyone else up for some patrolling tonight?"  
  
"I just hope the new Slayer gets here soon." Willow responded as she stood to join Xander.  
  
Everyone nodded their agreement. Everyone, that is, except Harry, who asked. "Do you mean the second Slayer?"  
  
"No. She's . . . unavailable." Giles responded.  
  
At Harry's look of confusion, Willow supplied. "She's in prison for murder."  
  
"Oh." Harry wasn't sure what to say next.  
  
Fortunately, Tara picked up on his confusion. "What is it?" She asked gently.  
  
"It's just that I don't think there's *going* to be a new Slayer to replace Buffy."  
  
Giles looked wild-eyed at Harry. "However did you get that idea?"  
  
"It was the article in the _Daily Prophet._ The one that told me that Buffy had died. It said something about how Buffy's death took care of the 'superfluity of Slayers,' or words to that effect."  
  
"They wouldn't!" Xander said.  
  
"They couldn't!" Willow replied.  
  
"They just might have." Giles finished up grimly as he walked into the kitchen, yelling over his shoulder, "May I borrow your phone, Dawn?"  
  
"Go right ahead." An obviously-confused Dawn responded.  
  
Willow sat back down and addressed Harry and Dawn. "You see, a few years ago . . ."  
  
"Four years ago. Almost to the day." Xander interrupted.  
  
"Right. Four years ago, Buffy, well, she died for a few minutes."  
  
Dawn gasped.  
  
"It's all right. She got over it." Willow hastened to assure her. "But she was dead long enough for the new Slayer to be called. Her name was Kendra. So for the next year, we had two Slayers."  
  
"The next year?"  
  
Willow nodded. "Well, the better part of a year, anyway. She was killed." Harry wondered what the full story was, by the way Willow pointedly did *not* look at Spike as she said this.**  
  
"Then, we got Faith. She was the proverbial 'bad apple.' And that was *before* she committed the murder she's in jail for now."  
  
Willow was interrupted by the sounds of Giles swearing floridly followed by cracking plastic. Giles emerged from the kitchen looking somewhat sheepish. "It appears that there will be no new Slayer. The Council have performed a ritual that will prevent a new Slayer from being called until after Faith's death."   
"I wonder if we can pay off another convict to bump Faith off." Xander said flatly.  
  
And no-one contradicted him.  
  
Hours later, as the sun was coming up, Xander, Willow, Anya, Tara, Spike and Giles returned, looking much the worse for wear. They flopped down onto the couch and chairs in the living room and Harry and Dawn began to walk into the kitchen to put breakfast on the table.   
  
"So, how'd it go?" Dawn asked hesitantly.  
  
"It's like bailing a boat with a sieve." Giles responded, not opening his eyes. "I'm beginning to think that perhaps we should take Xander's suggestion of putting a contract out on Faith seriously."  
  
Xander, too tired to argue, merely sighed heavily.  
  
Harry couldn't shake the feeling that something that Remus had mentioned in one of his Defense Against the Dark Arts classes might make a difference. And Dawn had said something about it as well. If only he could remember what it was.  
  
He and Dawn set out all of their bowls and glasses in the kitchen, along with every box of cereal they could find, and gallon containers of orange juice and milk. Neither could make coffee, but Harry had put a pot on for tea. The Summers family didn't have loose tea, but he doubted that Giles would want his tea leaves read anyhow, so a teabag would probably suffice.   
  
As the exhausted vampire slayers filed into the kitchen, suddenly Harry realized what it was that was nagging at him. "Er, excuse me." He said to get their attention. "I think I have an idea how to bring Buffy back."  
  
=========  
  
*Actually the closest full moon to _The Gift_ is June 6, which this most definitely is *not*, but you know it and I know it, but the moon in this reality evidently doesn't know it.  
  
** For anyone who missed Season 2, Spike's then-girlfriend, Drusilla, killed Kendra, and Spike was glad she did it.


	9. 9

Harry Potter and The Key, Chapter 9 -- The Conclusion  
By: PepperjackCandy  
  
Disclaimer: All things Buffy are owned by Joss Whedon, Alien Enemy, 20th Century Fox, etc. The Harry Potter universe is owned by J.K. Rowling. I'm just putting them in the same bowl and mixing them up a bit. 8-)  
  
Once again, SPOILER WARNING for those who haven't seen the first five seasons of Buffy or read the first four Harry Potter books.   
  
A/N: Wow! Was that Season 6 premiere something??? And the return of Buffy was *nothing* like what I'm doing here. :whew!:  
  
I know that Harry comes off a bit Wesley Crusheresque in this one, but I figure that he should come up with most of the solution, not because he's smarter than the rest, but because he has a fresher perspective than the others.  
  
=========  
  
The room exploded with denials and admonitions. Harry couldn't tell who was saying what, but he got the general impression that everyone in the room agreed that resurrection spells were a bad idea.  
  
"Could everyone *please* calm down?" Harry asked.  
  
Finally, they quieted.  
  
"I didn't mean that I want to reanimate her." Harry explained. "That's Dark magic, and," he fixed Giles with a _you of all people should know exactly what I mean_ look, "I wouldn't dare dabble in that.  
  
"No. It's just that. . . well, I hope you don't mind that Dawn told me, you know, about the whole vengeance demon thing." He spoke to Anya.   
  
Anya was a little flustered as she responded, "No problem."  
  
"But how, exactly, did it work?"  
  
"Well, a woman would be slighted, and I would open up a passageway to a timeline where her fondest wish came true. Of course, sometimes that wish turned into a nightmare, which is why I'm a demon, not an angel."  
  
"And you'd send her to that timeline?"  
  
Anya nodded. "What are you thinking?"  
  
"Could you bring someone back from another timeline?"  
  
Anya and Willow looked at each other. "Yes. Well, it's possible to bring someone from there. I never did it myself."  
  
"What are you thinking, Harry?" Giles's tone indicated that he had a suspicion, and he didn't like what he was suspecting.  
  
"Well, I was thinking that Anya could find a timeline where Buffy's job is done, but that she's still alive. Then we ask her to come here and be our Slayer."  
  
"Can you do that?" Willow asked the vengeance demon.  
  
Anya nodded. "Well, I could have. Back when I had my necklace. It both focused and boosted my power. Without it, I can sense other timelines, but not interact with them."  
  
"What do you need in the way of a focus?" Giles asked.  
  
"A gemstone, orb, crystal, something like that."  
  
"Is there anything at the shop that you could use?" Giles asked.  
  
She shook her head. "If there was, I would have used it and been out of here a long time ago." Belatedly she realized that wasn't the best thing to say and she added, "and I would have missed out on the adventure and friendship and romance," she kissed Xander, "that I've found here."  
  
Xander looked unconvinced, so she kissed him again, longer this time. This seemed to placate him.  
  
"Well, there's no time to order something from a supplier." Giles fretted as he started pacing.   
  
"What about Diagon Alley?" Harry asked.  
  
"Diagon Alley?" Anya asked.   
  
"It's a street full of wizarding shops and the like - places where they sell wands, and spellbooks. . . ." He saw Willow's and Tara's eyes light up with excitement. "And we're not going to make a field trip of it. Anya and I will be going and coming straight back." He said pointedly to the two witches.  
  
Giles felt his pockets and pulled out a wad of bills. "Does Gringott's change American Muggle money into wizarding money, do you know?" He asked Harry.  
  
"If you don't know, I certainly don't."  
  
"Right. Well, I'll just have to hope that they do. If not, well, we'll think of something."  
  
Anya gave Xander a farewell kiss and then Anya and Giles left for his apartment, and the fireplace that was still hooked up to the Floo Network.  
  
"How long do you think they'll be gone?" Willow asked.  
  
Harry shrugged. "The Floo trip here from Hogwarts took about five minutes, but there's lots of shops on Diagon Alley. And some on Knockturn Alley, too, which is the other street of the wizarding district."  
  
"So it could be anytime from ten minutes to several hours."   
  
"Basically. Why don't you," he looked from Dawn, to Willow, to Tara, to Xander, and noticed that Spike had left the room at some point, "go and get some sleep. I slept last night. I think I can keep an eye out for Giles and Anya by myself."  
  
Xander retired to Buffy's old room, and Willow and Tara took Joyce's. Dawn kissed Harry briefly on the lips and asked, "will you be all right?"  
  
"Yeah. I'll just watch the telly for a while. We'll be sure to wake you up when they come home."  
  
Yawning, Dawn went up the stairs to her own room.  
  
Harry watched talk shows for a while, then a couple of soap operas, then more talk shows. Finally, Giles and Anya returned.   
  
"Where is everyone?" Giles asked.  
  
"Upstairs. I sent them all to get some sleep a few hours ago."  
  
"Could you get them, please?" Giles seemed dismayed somehow.  
  
Minutes later, the group was assembled in the living room and Giles began to speak. "Anya and I came up with a few . . . problems we hadn't foreseen before. First, the jewel we found will work to focus Anya's ability, but it won't provide enough power."  
  
"Couldn't we do that somehow, Giles?" Harry asked.  
  
The Watcher seemed intrigued. "How so?"  
  
"Well, I mean we have two wizards and two witches here. There must be *some* way to lend that power to Anya, right?"  
  
"Quite possible." Giles said, approvingly. "Now, the second problem is that I remembered that once the final vampire has been slain, the power of the Slayer will dissipate. It was a sort of failsafe to keep someone with that level of power from being at loose ends, as it were."  
  
"So any Slayer whose job is done is just a normal person." Xander said.  
  
"But what if we were to pull out a Buffy who's on her last vampire?" Willow asked. "We could send someone in that Buffy back while the vamp's still alive, and send someone in to take out that last vamp for her."  
  
Everyone nodded, indicating that they agreed with Willow's plan.  
  
Giles concluded, "And that would have to wait until after sundown. So, that gives us plenty of time to prepare for the ritual that will allow Anya to access our power."  
  
A couple of hours after sunset, Anya sat in lotus position in the middle of a circle, holding a jewel in her hands. At each of the compass points on the circle sat Giles at due north, Willow at due east, Harry at due south and Tara at due west. Xander, Spike and Dawn sat outside the circle. The two witches and two wizards slowly fed magical energy into Anya, who sorted carefully through the timelines for exactly what she wanted.  
  
Finally, as midnight approached, she called out. "I have it! A timeline with only one vampire left, and he and Buffy are about to have their final confrontation. The person who needs to talk to her is Tara!" And with that, Tara disappeared from her position in the circle.  
  
~~~~~~  
  
Tara walked through the dark cemetery, looking for Buffy. _She's got to be here,_ Tara reassured herself. _Anya's been doing this for more than a millenium. She couldn't possibly have sent me to the wrong timeline._   
  
She heard a growl and turned to face a vampire in full vamp mode. Before she had time to respond, Buffy threw herself in between Tara and the vampire. "Run!" Buffy admonished her.  
  
"No. I can't." Tara responded softly.  
  
"What? Why not?"  
  
"Because I've been sent to find you. I'm from a parallel . . . a parallel timeline and we've lost our Buffy and aren't getting another Slayer. We need you."  
  
Buffy threw a flying kick at the vamp. "But I'm needed here."  
  
"No. This is the last vampire in your timeline. If you agree to go, I'll stay behind and take care of her."  
  
The vampire threw Buffy over a headstone. "You sure you can handle it?"   
  
"Um, yeah. Pretty sure. Just leave me the stake."  
  
Buffy handed the stake to Tara. "I hope you're telling me the truth."   
  
"I am." Tara promised as the vampire came after her.   
  
"All right. I'll go." With that, Buffy disappeared.   
  
~~~~~~  
  
Scant minutes after Tara had gone, Buffy appeared in the spot that Tara had vacated. She stood and looked around, a slightly disoriented expression on her face. Just as she stepped out of the circle, Tara returned, out of breath, with rents in her clothing.   
  
Anya's eyes opened and suddenly the witch and two wizards found themselves freed from the joining spell. Willow ran to Tara's side. "Are you all right?" She asked, alternating between hugging Tara to herself and examining her partner for injuries.   
  
"I'm fine." Tara assured her. "The vampire was just a little more than I was prepared for. See to Buffy."  
  
Buffy stood in the center of her assembled friends, an expression of mingled horror and awe on her face. She slowly walked from one apparently-familiar face to the other.   
  
"Xander?"  
  
"Willow?"   
"Giles?"  
  
She stopped in front of Dawn and raised her hand to cup her face gently. "Dawnie?" She said softly, tears spilling from her eyes.  
  
Then, without another word, Buffy ran from the house.  
  
Dawn screamed, "Buffy!" and ran for the door, but Giles restrained her.   
  
"Dawn! You can't go after her." He admonished her.  
  
"But I have to! You saw! She recognized me. . . ." Dawn burst into tears in Giles's arms.  
  
Giles went to talk to the others, gently passing the distraught Dawn into Harry's arms. Harry helped Dawn sit down and continued holding her, one ear on Giles's conversation with Willow and Xander.  
  
"She obviously recognized us." Giles began.  
  
"And something tells me we aren't exactly in the best of shape there, either." Xander responded.  
  
"I think we shouldn't go after her."   
  
"But, Giles, she's in distress!" Willow insisted.  
  
"Yes. Tara?"   
  
Tara joined them.   
  
"Did Buffy seem distressed when you saw her in the other timeline?"  
  
The blonde shook her head. "No."   
  
"So it was probably seeing *us* that did it. I just can't shake the thought that it'd be best to let her adjust to the idea and come back to us in her own time."  
  
"Or not." Willow said.  
  
"Yes, or not, as the case may be. But remember, we brought her here, not for us, but for the world. If she chooses not to return, then that's her choice to make. Though I really hope she does return."  
  
They stayed up all night waiting for Buffy to return, but she never did. As the sun began to rise, an owl from Dumbledore arrived bearing a note for Harry to return to Hogwarts immediately, and Harry knew that if he wanted indulgence from the headmaster in the future, he'd best not press him on this.   
  
"Do you have to go?" Dawn asked as he packed up his bag.  
  
Harry sighed. "You know I do."  
  
"I know. I was just hoping the answer would be different this time."  
  
Harry walked to Dawn and pulled her into a tight hug. "We'll still write, you know."  
  
"Yeah, but it won't be the same."  
  
"And maybe I can come back for a proper visit over the summer, like we'd planned. I might even be able to get you an invite to visit with some friends in England this summer."  
  
Dawn's eyes sparkled. "Will you take me to Diagonally and everything?"  
  
Harry chuckled. "Diagon Alley and we'll see. First I have to talk to the Weasleys about whether they'll have room for you. There are seven children in their family, you know."   
  
Giles drove them back to his apartment, where Harry and Dawn exchanged one last hug and chaste kiss, then Harry took a pinch of Floo powder, pitched it into the fireplace, called out "Hogwarts," and was gone.   
  
=========  
  
A/N II: Well, that's it. I planned to go through the return of Buffy and then send Harry back to Hogwarts.  
  
I know, you're asking "Will Buffy ever come home? What about the Third Task?" Well, there *will* be a sequel to this, probably entitled "Harry Potter and the Key II" which will be mostly Buffy and not so much Harry Potter, and if I can keep my own interest up enough, I'll round this out with "Harry Potter and the Key III" which will be mostly Harry Potter and not so much Buffy. At least, not that I can tell you about now. :maniacal laughter:


End file.
